Truly Foreclosed? Or Were You Robo-Signed?

The story starts with two of the largest banks in the United States. In the interest of processing hundreds of thousands of foreclosures in the quickest time possible, they popularized a new term: robo-signing. They acted like robots who only skim over the numbers and practice quick document signing to get properties into the market faster than you can say 'profit'. Now it's backfiring.

During the depositions, lawyers representing the homeowners who homes were foreclosed learned that bank employees had to close more than 10,000 documents every month. This changed the way people looked at the document signing process.

Although homeowners are still fighting to get their homes back, the picture that employees keep them from their job scenario did not give them a lot of insight on the pressure that these employees had to end to keep their jobs.

Both banks have said that they realize that the lapses in the foreclosures were very technical. They have also promised that they would revise their processes to ensure that foreclosure documents are given more thought and consideration before they are approved or denied. However, the bigger question is, why did not these big banks just turn to esignatures to make their document processing faster and more efficient?

An electronic, digital signature system could have saved these banks from all that trouble. It is understandable for employees not to take the things they needed to do seriously because there's just too much to do at one time. This can also happen to your business. Real estate companies or just about any company that handles a huge number of paperwork needs a tool that can help them get the job done quicker. Electronic signatures are a great way to get the job done. All your approval need to do is to authenticate their identity and the signature will be affixed.

Electronic signatures are legal and have the same value as traditional, handwritten ones. Electronic, digital signatures are even better because they are encrypted. Once a digital signature is affixed onto a document, it can no longer be edited or altered in any way until the recipient opens it. This ensures the security and accuracy of the document.

The banks could have avoided the whole robo-signaling scandal if only they upgraded the way they run their business. The technology that allows people to create and authenticate esignatures has been around for many years now and is very easy to integrate into the existing processes of any company. It can dramatically cut the cost of having to sign 10,000 documents every month. It could have saved a lot of time, too. That time could have been used to review the documents more thoroughly, preventing more complaints from the homeowners.

The bottom line is that other businesses should learn from this oversight. Whenever technology offers something good for businesses like yours, grab the opportunity and make the most of it. Esignatures help save the planet by reducing waste and lowers your office supply costs. As shown in the robo-signing scandal, it can also save your business and your market reputation.